The Supreme Court has dismissed Bus Éireann’s appeal against a €260,000 damages award to a woman who was injured when her car was hit from behind by a bus.
The company had Ms Teresa Goodwin filmed by a private detective and examined by two doctors. The doctors gave evidence they did not accept many of the symptoms Ms Goodwin complained of were genuine.
Bus Éireann had claimed Ms Goodwin (51), a native of Ireland but living in New York, had fraudulently exaggerated her claim arising from an incident at Rathcoole, Co Dublin, in 1999.
Dismissing the appeal yesterday, Mr Justice Nial Fennelly, giving the unanimous judgment of the Supreme Court, said Bus Éireann had failed to establish the trial judge committed any error in her assessment. The trial judge had “carefully considered” the evidence, which she “accepted in part”, and in other respects had preferred Ms Goodwin’s evidence.